Weekend Event Planner

These are the 14 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

It'll be festival-central this weekend in and around Dallas, with no fewer than four notable festivals taking place. Also on the docket are visits from three funny people, two local theater productions, four different dance productions, and a concert by a big-name singer.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, April 25

Thin Line Fest
Thin Line is a one-of-a-kind festival featuring the longest running documentary film festival in Texas, a music section featuring a mix of styles from national and regional acts, and a photo section features hundreds of photographs displayed across downtown galleries and online. The festival, running through Sunday will take place at multiple venues around Denton, including Campus Theatre, Dan's Silverleaf, the lawn of the Denton County Courthouse, and more.

Dallas International Film Festival
The 18th Dallas International Film Festival will feature screenings of more than 100 films submitted from more than 60 countries, as well as Q&A sessions with filmmakers and actors, nightly DIFF Red Carpets, a Festival Lounge, and special events. Highlights of the festival include opening night film Dude Perfect: A Very Long Shot, about the local trick shot masters; closing night film Sing Sing starring Oscar nominee Colman Domingo; The Dead Don't Hurt, a Western from writer/director Viggo Mortensen starring Vicky Krieps and Mortensen; Print It Black, a documentary about how journalists in Uvalde, Texas responded to the school shooting at Robb Elementary; and more. Screenings take place at Violet Crown Cinema in Dallas through May 2.

DMA Arts & Letters Live: An Evening with David Sedaris
David Sedaris returns to Arts & Letters Live for an evening of laughter and reflection. With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, Sedaris has become one of America’s preeminent humor writers. At this event, taking place at McFarlin Auditorium on the SMU campus, he will read new and unpublished material, answer questions from the audience, and sign books.

Friday, April 26

City of Grand Prairie presents Main Street Fest
The City of Grand Prairie Parks, Arts & Recreation Department will present the annual Main Street Fest. The event will include live music from Mark Chesnutt, Michael Salgado, and Parliament Funkadelic feat. George Clinton, carnival rides, arts & crafts, food & beverage gardens, an array of entertainment at the Kidzone, and more. The festival takes place through Sunday along Main Street in Grand Prairie.

Garland Civic Theatre presents You Can't Take It With You
The family of Martin Vanderhof lives “just around the corner from Columbia University - but don’t go looking for it.” Grandpa, as Martin is more commonly known, is the paterfamilias of a large and extended family of charming eccentrics. His granddaughter, Alice, is an attractive and loving girl who is still embarrassed by her family’s idiosyncrasies. When Alice falls for her boss, Tony, a handsome scion of Wall Street, she fears that their two families - so unlike in manner, politics, and finances - will never come together. The production runs through May 12 at Granville Arts Center in Garland.

Improv Addison presents Maz Jobrani
Maz Jobrani is a comedian, actor and best-selling author of I'm Not a Terrorist But I've Played One on TV. His latest standup comedy special, 2023's The Birds & the Bees, is now available for streaming on YouTube. He is also a regular panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. He'll perform five times through Sunday at Improv Addison.

Over the Bridge Arts presents Younger Than Dirt
Younger Than Dirt is a new collaborative dance which aims to re-examine common cultural attitudes and assumptions toward different stages of life, from dating to mating, through growing up to growing old-er, all through an artistic lens of humor and poignancy. The production will have performances on Friday and Saturday at Bath House Cultural Center.

Bianca Del Rio: Dead Inside Comedy Tour
Bianca Del Rio, otherwise known as Roy Haylock, is a dimple-cheeked, larger-than-life drag queen and outrageous comic who isn’t afraid to shock and offend. Fierce, funny, and fabulous, she has sandblasted her name in the annals of pop culture on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Thanks to her snarky frankness, impeccable timing, and politically incorrect humor, she became the show’s breakout star, winning its sixth season. She'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

Saturday, April 27

Festival of Joy
At the Festival of Joy, visitors can kick off spring with a colorful celebration of spirituality and Indian culture. The day at Klyde Warren Park will be filled with bright colors, beautiful flowers, and a free vegetarian feast, along with music, dance, and interactive holistic living and cultural exhibits. There will also be a special evening stage performance by Gaura Vani, an internationally acclaimed multidisciplinary artist fluent in music, film and the visual arts.

Dallas Children's Theater presents C.S. Lewis’ The Magician's Nephew
In this prequel to C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, young Digory wants nothing more than to save his ailing mother. When Digory's eccentric, bumbling magician uncle tricks him and his neighbor Polly into a world between worlds, they accidentally awaken Jadis, an evil queen who sets her sights on their own home of London. Realism and fantasy collide in this classic adventure story of good versus evil. Mythical kingdoms and deep magic await, and Narnia is born. The production runs through May 25 at Dallas Children's Theater.

World Ballet Series: Swan Lake
Swan Lake will be performed as part of the World Ballet Series. Audiences can see the iconic Dance of the Little Swans, count the 32 fouettés performed by Odile, and immerse themselves in magical Tchaikovsky's music. The production will feature richly detailed, hand-painted sets as well as over 150 radiant costumes that bring fresh representation to this timeless classic. There will be two performances on Saturday at Majestic Theatre.

TITAS / Dance Unbound presents Command Performance
At Command Performance, artists from leading companies light up the stage with spectacular, surprising, jaw-dropping performances. It is the pyrotechnics of dance - the most exciting, innovative and beautiful works being performed today. Command Performance, taking place at Winspear Opera House, also features TITAS/Dance Unbound commissioned works created specifically for this gala performance.

Ballet North Texas presents Sonata
The final production of Ballet North Texas' season, Sonata, will be a performance that encapsulates the rich history of dance. The program will celebrate both established and emerging choreographers, paying homage to the music that inspired them and the movements it ignited. There will be performances on both Saturday and Sunday at Moody Performance Hall.

Sunday, April 28

Hozier in concert
Way back in 2013, Irish singer Hozier took the music world by storm with his hit song, "Take Me to Church," off of his self-titled debut album. Although he's had some minor hits in the intervening 11 years, it's taken until 2024 for him to reach those heights again with his recent No. 1 hit, "Too Sweet." He'll play at Dos Equis Pavilion in support of his 2023 album, Unreal Unearth and recently-released EP, Unheard.

Photo courtesy of Festival of Joy

The 5th Annual Festival of Joy takes place at Klyde Warren Park on April 27.

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Movie Review

Spanish film La Bola Negra showcases unique slice of gay history

Photo by Carla Oset/Netflix

Miguel Bernardeau and Guitarricadelafuente in La Bola Negra.

For a long time — too long — gay characters in movies tended to appear as either side characters with no real stories or as tragic figures who were usually unable to express their true selves for fear of what the world at large would think. That has changed in recent years, but the remnants of the past can still haunt, as the new film La Bola Negra demonstrates.

The film takes shape in storylines involving three different men: Carlos (Milo Quifes), a young man in Granada, Spain in 1932 who wants to join an exclusive casino (aka social club); Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente), who unwillingly joins the military during the Spanish Civil War in 1937, only to have desires aroused in him when he’s asked to guard an enemy detainee; and Alberto (Carlos González), an out gay man in 2017 whose inheritance from his recently-deceased grandfather opens up a world he knew nothing about.

The film goes back and forth between each man, detailing how they handle their individual situations and the complications that arise in their individual lives. Along the way their stories are deepened through people they meet who either welcome them with open arms or shun them for various reasons. While tragedy bonds their stories, so too does hope, resistance, and love.

Co-director/co-writers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, along with co-writer Alberto Conejero, have expanded Conejero’s play, La Piedra Oscura, which was inspired by Federico Garcia Lorca’s unfinished play, La Bola Negra. Lorca, who was killed during the Spanish Civil War, had only finished four pages of the work, his first to feature an openly gay protagonist. It’s clear there’s a desire by the filmmakers to honor the legacy of Lorca as both a playwright and a gay man, and the seriousness of their pursuit is evident throughout the film’s 160 minutes.

Calvo and Ambrossi do little handholding to guide viewers through the three distinct stories, an approach that mostly works but occasionally leads to confusion, especially as more characters are added to the equation. None of the stories are overly complicated, but they take their time with each, making the long film feel even longer. Only Alberto’s story contains any kind of development that might be considered surprising, making it tough to fully engage with the other two.

Where the film does come alive is when it brings in two well-known actors for brief-but-fascinating stints. Penélope Cruz plays Nené Romero, a singer who entertains the troops and further expands Sebastián’s mind. Glenn Close pops up as Isabelle Durand, a scholar of Lorca who helps Alberto with a unique discovery he makes in his inheritance. Both actors bring up the level of the film significantly through their performances.

Quifes, Guitarricadelafuente (the stage name of Spanish singer Álvaro Lafuente Calvo, no relation to Javier), and González all put in good work in their roles, even if none are overly engaging. They are often overshadowed by supporting actors like Cruz and Close, as well as Miguel Bernardeau as Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, the captured soldier; Julio Torres as Alberto’s partner, and Alberto Cortés as Lorca, who brings a symmetry to the film as a whole.

La Bola Negra — which means “the black ball,” represented both literally and figuratively in the film — is an ambitious film that becomes a slight victim of its filmmakers’ aspirations. Although each of the three stories contain interesting elements, a strong emotional connection is lacking overall despite good-to-great performances.

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La Bola Negra is now playing in select theaters; it debuts on Netflix on December 2.

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